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The 7 Secrets of Running a Wildly Popular Blog

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Did you ever wonder why some blogs attracts tons of readers and others don’t? Of course you’ve wondered. We all have. Because if you’re reading this blog, you almost certainly have a blog of your own. You think it’s great, and you want lots of other people to think it’s great too. So what’s the answer? Why do some blogs become more popular than others? There are lots of reasons why people flock to certain blogs, but I think one of the most important is that popular blogs are written by popular people — the sort of people who attract others. And becoming a popular person isn’t just a matter of fate or genes. It’s something you can work on. I’m not saying content isn’t important when you’re creating a popular blog. Content for the best blogs is almost always top-notch, interesting, and informative — and that takes work. But a blog isn’t just about work or great content. Think about the most popular person you know in your personal life. What is it about them that attracts other people? Brains? Skill? Knowledge? These things could be part of it, but don’t you also know popular people who aren’t the smartest, the most skilled, or the best-educated? When giving the commencement speech to the Vassar class of 1983, Meryl Streep said this: Real Life is actually a lot more like high school. The common denominator prevails. Excellence is not always recognized or rewarded. What we watch on our screens, whom we elect, are determined to a large extent by public polls. Looks count. A lot. And unlike the best of the college experience, when ideas and solutions somehow seem attainable if you just get up early, stay up late, try hard enough, and find the right source or method, things on the outside sometimes seem vast and impossible … In other words, success isn’t necessarily about competence. It’s often about likeability. People like to spend time with people they like. The same applies to blogs. Success often depends on likeability. How you come across. Your vibe. Your attitude and personality. And if I were to break this down into specific tips, I’d say there are 7 secrets for making your blog (and you) more popular. 1. Have a conversation People don’t like to be lectured or talked down to. They just like to talk. And a blog is really a form of conversation between you and your readers. Even if people don’t always directly communicate with you or leave comments, the tone of your posts should be more or less conversational. Don’t write like you’re delivering a sermon. Write like you’re chatting with a friend. Keep it easy and informal. 2. Lighten up You don’t have to tell jokes, but it’s smart to keep things light-hearted. Consider the Men with Pens blog. James always has a lot of fun when writing a post, and her sense of humor makes the information more readable and entertaining. Your readers are probably having a tough day. Their desk is groaning under the weight of all their projects. The economy is crappy and their life is full of responsibility. If they read your blog and come away feeling just a little happier, they’ll keep coming back. 3. Be yourself After all, people are not coming to your blog just to acquire knowledge. They’re dropping by to visit you . Which means you have to be there. That means revealing a little about yourself, sharing the occasional personal photo, posting videos where you talk to your readers, letting people know what’s going on with you. For example, in a recent Pro Copy Tips post, I mentioned that I visited Las Vegas for my sister’s wedding. I show a photo of me standing in front of the famous welcome sign on a sweltering afternoon. I mention playing the slots and losing a little money. (Only a buck. I’m not much of a gambler.) And all this served as an introduction to thoughts about how writers take risks, so it remained informative and focused on the reader. 4. Be nice Yes, your mom was right. You have to be nice. Don’t be a diva. Answer your emails. Respond to comments. Be polite even when a reader makes the occasional stupid remark or a troll flames you for no good reason. The people who are rude to you are having a bad day, or a bad life, and they want to share their frustration and anger with you. But it’s their problem, not yours. They want to provoke you. Don’t let them. If anyone gets out of control on your blog, don’t bicker about it. Just delete the comment and move on. 5. Get over yourself When you think about it, blogs are really kind of egotistical . You have to think pretty highly of yourself to assume other people want to hear what you have to say day after day. There’s nothing wrong with a healthy ego, but your blog really isn’t about you. It’s about your readers. It may seem counterintuitive, but the more you cater to your readers needs, the more popular and profitable your blog can become. The more you give, the more you get. The world is full of self-centered and stingy bloggers. Don’t be one of them. (I realize this might seem to contradict #3. There’s a delicate balance there. You want to share enough of yourself to make a connection, but still keep your focus on your audience.) 6. Help people Isn’t this the whole point of a blog, especially one that’s wildly popular? Why do you visit Copyblogger or Lifehacker or Chris Brogan , or any of the other top blogs? Because they offer you lots of stuff without necessarily expecting something in return. The people who run these blogs are constantly thinking about how they can help you. Again, think about the people in your personal life. You probably know that one person who is always willing to help, no matter what you need. Why do you keep going back to that person? Because you know they’ll say “yes” when most others will say no. Helpful people are popular people. 7. Stop trying so hard Yes, you need to work at your blog. You should write good posts. You should offer solid information. You might even put in long hours. But don’t push too hard. Relax. Enjoy it. Make it part of your life. If you’re desperate for success, that desperation will show. It’s like dating: there’s a fine line between wooing someone and stalking them. I mean, have you ever had someone get a crush on you and start trailing you like a puppy? It’s annoying. And a little creepy. No matter how much you want success, just remember that it comes fast for some and slower for others. There’s a moderately popular blog I used to enjoy. Then the people who run it announced a product. From that day forward, every post was about their product. Every link pointed to a sales page. The blog was no longer a conversation. It was a relentless sales pitch. I don’t visit any more. Meryl Streep was right. Life is like high school. And success has a lot to do with being popular. So … be popular. About the Author: Dean Rieck is one of America’s top direct marketing copywriters. He shares his writing and freelancing know-how at the wildly popular Pro Copy Tips .

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How to Find Thousands More Prospects for Your Business

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Ever wonder why conversion rates are so low? A “good” sales page will usually convert between 1 and 5 percent of its readers. Those numbers vary wildly depending on about a zillion factors, but that’s the middle of the bell curve. So that means between 95 and 99 percent of people reject what you’ve got to offer. Seems a little depressing when you look at it that way, right? So are those 95–99 percent just a write-off, a necessary cost of doing business? Do you have to do the work and/or spend the money to get nearly prospects to make 1 sale? Not necessarily. Note: No actual statistics were harmed, or even used, in the writing of this post. In other words, these numbers are theoretical. Use them to illustrate the principle, and for back-of-the-envelope planning. The real numbers always come from your own business and your own individual situation. The desperate buyers strategy According to sales strategist Chet Holmes, at any given time, about 3 percent of your market is in active buying mode. So if you sell furniture, about 3 percent of adults in your town are looking for some piece of furniture right now. If you sell fancy cages for naked mole rats, about 3 percent of naked mole rat owners are in the market for a new cage. Traditional internet marketing is all about finding this 3 percent. The smartest Adwords, SEO, and affiliate marketers are all trying to selectively find that 3 percent and weed out the other 97. You can call this the Desperate Buyers Only strategy, which is the title of a very solid program by Alexis Dawes on writing and selling ebooks. The trouble is that the desperate 3 percent are expensive, because everyone wants them. What are called the “converting keywords” (the keywords that are proven to attract the 3 percent who are ready to buy today) are expensive to buy with pay-per-click. Those same keywords are usually highly competitive for SEO , and getting more so every day. You’re competing with thousands of hungry internet marketers for that 3%. It can be done, but you have to be at the top of your game. But there are more buyers out there, if you know how to treat them. The conquer-the-universe strategy Holmes’s research goes on to say that about 7 percent of any given market is receptive to the idea of buying, even if they aren’t actively looking. Given the right offer, they could be talked into it. We could call these our Not-So-Desperate buyers . If you can pull them in, you’ve more than tripled the size of your potential buying pool, going from 3 percent to 10 percent. Another 30-ish percent will buy one of these days, but it’s not on their radar right now. Call them the Not Yets . About 30 percent are mildly turned off on the idea of buying your product. Holmes calls them the Soft No . And about 30 percent are highly turned off. They hate something about your company, or they never pay for information, or their spouse has threatened them with grievous bodily harm if they spend any more money on what you sell. They’re the Absolutely Nevers . What happens if you start creating marketing communication that entices the Not-So-Desperate, the Not Yets, the Soft Nos, and even a few Absolutely Nevers? You can scoop up all of those potential buyers and keep them close until they’re ready for you. You can develop enough trust and rapport to warm up the Not-So-Desperates, and even light a bit of a fire to get them moving today. You can make yourself the natural choice when the Not Yets are ready. You can answer objections and reverse the risk for the Soft Nos, which often turns them into Yeses. And you can even get a handful of Absolutely Nevers to act as your unpaid salespeople. While Absolutely Nevers might never buy themselves, if you’ve set up your marketing correctly, a surprising number of them will pass the word along to someone else who will buy. The product may not be right for them, but they know someone who can use the content . The key is the content net What kind of marketing attracts all the potential buyers, rather than the ones who are hot to buy right now? It has to be marketing that doesn’t look like marketing. Advertising that’s too valuable to throw away. Communication that delivers a real and compelling benefit, with the sales message presented only after you’ve earned the right to sell. Or what we like to call cookie content . And what kind of marketing keeps them around and engaged until they’re ready to buy from you? It has to be marketing that’s delivered over time. Advertising that arrives on a predictable, regular schedule. Communication that’s repeated enough times to develop trust and rapport. And the two best tools for that at the moment are probably a blog combined with an email autoresponder . A content net weaves a nice, friendly web of communication around all the categories of buyers, and keeps them interested. It’s a terrific tool for your Desperate 3%, because it educates them about why you’re the unquestionably perfect choice. But it also takes the other 97% and nurtures them, training them to become your ideal customer. About the Author : Sonia Simone is Senior Editor of Copyblogger and the founder of Remarkable Communication .

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We’re Taking the Summer Off…

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Well, not the whole summer. But we are giving ourselves a break. We spend a lot of time teaching people how to build smart, sustainable businesses with content. The kind of businesses that give us enough free time to have some decent work-life balance. After all, working your own schedule, to suit your own life, is one of the biggest benefits of running a business, right? Then it occurred to us — hm, maybe we should take some of our own advice. Many folks in the U.S. are taking today off for the Independence Day holiday, and we’re going to join them. And tomorrow we start our official summer schedule. We’ll post three terrific articles a week: Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday. Then from Thursday through Sunday, enjoy a long summer weekend. Go for a bike ride, have lunch with friends, go to the zoo with your kids, maybe throw in a picnic or two. Yes, continue to work on and grow your business . But balance that out with all the other great stuff in your life. In other words, have a terrific summer — we only get so many of them. (Special note for our readers in Australia, where it is currently winter. Um, sorry. Maybe go for some relaxing sleigh rides on the beach?) Already pining for your Copyblogger fix? Feed your addiction by subscribing to the free Internet Marketing for Smart People newsletter. It’s all the cutting-edge marketing advice you’ve been craving, delivered hot and fresh to your email in-box. Even if you live in Australia. About the Author : Sonia Simone is Senior Editor of Copyblogger and the founder of Remarkable Communication .

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Charles Bukowski and the Secret to Immortal Writing

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Henry Charles Bukowski, Jr. was arguably the greatest American fiction writer of the last half of the 20th century. Fortunately for his book sales, most think of him as the archetypal drunk, misanthropic male pig. Don’t let the hype fool you, though. Bukowski possessed the secret to something nearly every blogger wants: what makes truly immortal writing. As I’ve only spent a few minutes with his now 16-year-old corpse lying in San Pedro (see photo above), I can’t speak to his personal life. But the words, the lines, the books, they are evidence of a generous, staggeringly imperfect, stoic genius and lover of life. Sure, a stack of tangled contradictions, who isn’t? Before (and after) his relatively minor fame hit, Bukowski spent decades mailing his poems and stories to small press magazines, mimeographed booklet makers and the like. Thousands of pages, hundreds of thousands of words. Usually these would go out as originals, no carbon copies. He once estimated that he’d lost hundreds of poems this way, the publisher usually wouldn’t return the rejected work, and it was gone forever. It forced him to move on, to work deliberately, to punch through again and again and again without sentiment. The poetry business, in my opinion, is largely an inbred, favor-driven, audience-less racket. Most folks don’t think about poetry until Terry Gross drags some poor, expressive soul into her studio for a literary interview. And when he or she begins to talk, most folks switch the channel. Bukowski eventually acquired a raving audience despite this reality. An audience that continues to grow exponentially 16 years after his death. An audience that begs, borrows and steals to get his stuff. An audience that he famously never chased down. An audience that he, in fact, largely pushed away . How did he do it? How did he go on to sell endless books of poetry and finally lay down in the dirt making an almost six-figure literary income? Several reasons of course, but try this one on for size … The secret is in the line. ~ Charles Bukowski Yeah, I know. Don’t dismiss that. Read it again. The secret is in the line. ~ Charles Bukowski No 10 point PR plan. No elaborate structure. No budget. No reader polls. No blog. The secret is in the line. ~ Charles Bukowski Sure, Twitter wasn’t around in 1980. And he eventually had John Martin at Black Sparrow Press backing him. But Bukowski himself attributed so much weight to the single line that it eclipsed all else in his philosophy of writing. If the single line was magnificent, the rest would take care of itself. In a 60,000 word novel, the working focus was on the single line . In the dirty stories sold to skin mags for money, the working focus was on the single line . In a small poem that maybe 50 people would read, the working focus was on the single line . Not easy. Not fast. But this must certainly be the path to immortal (and powerfully influential) writing. If you can stomach it. If not, there’s always a place for you in the pedestrian lane . About the Author: Robert Bruce is an American writer. And day job man. And beer drinker. And Presbyterian. All from the rain and fog of Portland, Ore. Get him on Twitter .

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Four Steps to Finding Your Ideal Writing Voice

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Voice is one of the most important elements of a successful blog . Period. Without voice, new arrivals to your blog won’t read beyond the first paragraph. Give your readers a strong voice, though, and they won’t be able to keep their hot little fingers off that RSS button. But what is voice, exactly? And how can you make it come through in your blog? You probably think of people you know as having a deep voice, or a squeaky voice, or a soft voice. Obviously no one can literally hear you on your blog, but they can “hear” you through the words you use and the way you use them. Chances are, your 8th grade English teachers didn’t teach you about voice. I don’t blame them. It’s messy, abstract, and darned difficult, and I should know. I’ve taught nearly 800 young teenagers the magic of voice over the past nine years. And now I’m going to teach you. 1. Get into the flow Each day, my students do a three-minute writing warm-up. The only goal is fluency — to produce as much writing as they can in three minutes. Some of the best writing they ever produce comes from these three-minute bursts. By removing the pressure of quality and focusing purely on quantity , the students are free to flow. What comes out is natural, quirky, and authentic. What comes out has voice. Try it: Set a timer and go. Don’t let the pencil come off the paper (or your fingers come off the keyboard). Just produce. Don’t edit . Don’t censor. Simply flow. 2. Write like you talk I encourage my students to read their writing aloud and ask themselves or a peer, “Does this sound like me?” If the answer is no, I challenge them to simply talk about the subject in their compositions for a moment, while I jot down some of the words and phrases they use in their ramblings. When they insert some of these snippets into their writing — BAM — voice happens. Try it: Record yourself talking through an idea for a blog post — then transcribe what you’ve written . You’ll find some super-rich voice nuggets. 3. Forget conventions (at least at first) Many of my students have been taught by previous teachers to stifle their voices by writing “standard” English. (Whatever that means.) Yes, writing must communicate a message , and to that end the conventions of standard English are important. But in many instances, those rules actually hinder our ability to create a realistic voice. I frequently remind my students that the rules of our language evolved over time with the specific purpose of creating clarity. If breaking a rule will enhance the clarity of their writing, then they should break it — and so should you. That may mean you choose a fragment over a complete sentence, end a sentence with a preposition, or add a comma when the rule book says it isn’t needed. These deliberate choices allow your voice to shine through. Try it: The next time you write a first draft, throw a few conventions out the window. Pretend they don’t exist. When you reread your draft, make your editing decisions based on what best communicates your message. 4. Write what you know This is a biggie. For years, I have asked my students to write an essay about who they would put on the face of a new coin. The best papers, almost always, are written about their moms. Isn’t that sweet? Other students write about Martin Luther King, Jr. or Michael Jordan, or Anne Frank. Sometimes those essays are great, but many times they just sound like a regurgitation of historical facts. (Even worse, sometimes those facts are wrong: “Dr. King helped free the slaves by refusing to get off the bus with his sister, Rosa.”) Bloggers fall into the same trap of picking topics that sound smart or seem popular, even if those topics aren’t really near and dear to their hearts. The result: no voice. Try it: Make this quote from Dolly Parton your new blogging mantra: “Figure who you are; then do it on purpose.” Strive for authenticity instead of popularity . Don’t try to sound like anyone or anything except who you already are. It sure works for Dolly. What tricks do you have for finding your voice? Share your best methods in the comments. I promise not to assign grades! About the Author: Joy Tanksley is a middle school English teacher, the wife of a philosopher, and a leader of workshops for women who want to smash limiting belief systems and lead more abundant lives. She blogs about living a joy-filled life at Being Joy .

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Four Steps to Finding Your Ideal Writing Voice